Chapter 27
With horrified disbelief Lauren's eyes swung from her sister's taut face to the tall man who was still kneeling with a blank expression before her.
"That was him with you in the car my people had been following?" she was now as pallid as her sister, who nodded miserably under the heavy stare, "Why? How did you meet him?"
"I didn't even know he was fae, Lori," Kenzi whispered, the first easy tears drying up and the new batch of special effects requiring a significant effort.
"I just met him at a bar, he protected me from a drunk bully who thought beer breath should be a chick-magnet. We sorta got talking, he bought me a drink, you know how it happens," the girl stumbled through a heavily abridged and tweaked version of how she had met Dyson, "Me, a couple of shots and a super hot guy who saved me and who desired me. And not because you ordered him to."
"No, most likely because he knew who you were and wanted to use you to get to me," Lauren snapped cruelly, "This is exactly the reason I wanted you monitored and guarded – to prevent manipulative fae jerks like Dyson from taking advantage of you."
"He didn't," Kenzi shook her head stubbornly.
"Stop being so naïve," the blonde's temper was flaring up, "He orchestrated a rescue, got close to you, whisked you away from me, slept with you and if he hadn't been caught, he would be getting the codes and all the security details out of you by now. Or holding you as leverage against me."
Kenzi looked up sharply, locking gazes with her sister, she was no longer crying, decisive and decided.
"So, you can use him as leverage too," she rapped out the words, "Against me. You want me inside? Obeying you? I will do what you say, I won't ever escape, as long as you give him to me and not send him on a kamikaze mission."
"Give him to you?" Lauren repeated as if checking her hearing.
"No high-risk operations to get him killed. You want to get back at Dyson for whatever humiliation he subjected you to at the Ash's service? Humiliate him back – make the wolf a human girl's plaything," Kenzi enunciated.
"That's not punishment enough for him," Lauren gasped.
"It was punishment enough for Hale who got your nephew killed and your sister almost killed," the younger girl failed to rein in a flare of pain and anger and the blonde winced as she picked up on it.
"Why? He deceived you, used you," she asked softly.
"He gave me something no one could before him," Kenzi admitted, "Something that makes me feel alive again, something I can't let go if I want to feel this way again. And I do."
"What's that?" Lauren inquired disdainfully, "Don't tell me he had feelings for you or respected you for who you are. He's a fae who has treated humans like meat for centuries."
"Feelings?" Kenzi quirked an eyebrow, her old cocky rebellion making a reappearance, "Who's talking about feelings? Sex! Hot, smoldering sex. Without compulsion and with total abandon. Whether he was spying on me and using me or not, he was enjoying it every bit as much as I did."
"You abandoned me when I needed you most, granted that you thought you were protecting me, but it backfired. Then you stuck me in this mausoleum, turned the man I loved into a mindless slave who goes through the motions with me because he is ordered to, and you thought you made everything alright again? Well, newsflash, you didn't, I am not rebellious and stubborn – I am miserable, Lori," she continued with growing passion, "And for the first time in a very long while I took my own pick, acted on my own attraction.
and I want it. And you owe me."
She paused for breath lining up the next volley of arguments but clapped her mouth shut as soon as she saw Lauren regarding her wistfully, the hate and anger evaporating under the weight of a couple of simple realizations seeping through into the conscious part of her mind.
"You are obstinate and foolhardy and a lot more, but above all, you are unhappy and I don't know how to change that," the blonde said earnestly, "If he's by some miracle what can make you feel better need, take him. I promise I won't hurt him, not until you get tired of the beautiful toy."
"Thank you," the simple words rustled off Kenzi's lips and Lauren's heart clenched as she realized how long she hadn't heard that from her sister with anything approaching sincerity. The doctor walked over to Dyson and looked down at the curly crown of his bowed head.
"I think I have outwitted myself here," she said drily, all emotion drained from her apart from a weird sense of disappointment, "I should have killed you when you were still you, would probably enjoy it much more than ordering this empty shell around. I should have dealt with you while you were still the arrogant but powerful bastard, not the petty douche seducing young, emotionally vulnerable girls. Get up and follow Kenzi – you are fully at her disposal."
Dyson picked himself up, his face still expressionless but his blue eyes clearing a bit. "Yes, my Queen," he rumbled levelly.
"But you cannot take her out of the stronghold," Lauren went on accentuating her words with a jab of her finger into his chest, "And your primary task is to guard her life with your own. And I'll soon need you for all the intelligence on Tamsin and the Blood King, even if Kenzi doesn't let her blue-eyed boy do any actual risking."
"Now you," she turned back towards her sister, "Get him out of my sight and I think I'll pass on the bottle and the talk about how you shagged my enemy. You already got entangled t with a fae man before and got yourself hurt almost beyond repair. One would've thought you learnt your lesson but you only stooped lower. At least, Hale was a decent man."
Kenzi's conscience gave her a hefty prick as she finally remembered the man who had been her live-in fae and had been utterly forgotten in the whirlwind of the recent developments. But the slight stirrings of guilt couldn't douse the overwhelming sense of relief at having Dyson out of immediate danger.
"Pity about the bottle, sis, and we almost became friends again," she muttered boldly but the snark was wasted on Lauren who turned away stiffly and strutted towards the door followed by Vex who trotted after her like a jackal after a tiger.
###
Lauren stormed into her private quarters and right on the threshold wheeled on the Mesmer.
"Go and bring me Bo, hands bound behind her back, and don't let her touch anyone. She's hungry and I want her to stay that way," she barked and slammed the door in his face. As soon as she was alone, she let herself slide down, her back against the polished wood, and crumpled in a fit of uncontrollable, engulfing sobs, letting her frustration, her confusion, her grief come out in a torrent of tears. The doctor allowed herself to give in to her emotions with relish but the tears were as quickly wiped off as they had emerged.
When the brunette, hands tied behind her back, stumbled over the threshold prodded by the Mesmer, Lauren's pale face was dispassionate and collected again.
"Dark rings, sleep-deprived look," Bo chided softly as if she wasn't a prisoner at the mercy of the doctor, "You have never been one for taking good care of yourself and now that I am locked up, there's no one else there for you."
"There are my thralls, the ones that you obviously don't belong to," the blonde replied haughtily as she internally riled at the implication, "They are taking care of me."
"They are, if you tell them to," Bo smiled sadly, "It's like masturbation as compared to sex with a hottie you have feelings for – pretty enjoyable, basically does the trick but leaves you with a feeling that the process was still somehow lacking."
"Out of the two of us, it's you who looks unsatisfied," the doctor remarked coldly, "How long have you gone without chi?"
"Are you volunteering to lend a helping hand or a fuelling kiss?" the succubus showed her dazzlingly white teeth in an openly peckish grin.
"Not yet, darling," Lauren knew she was smiling back despite herself, "I figure if you're hungry, you're less stable, more willing to negotiate and more revealing.
"I am all kinds of negotiating and revealing," Bo upped the wattage of her smile and her charm but the doctor's expression wore no sign of relenting.
"Then reveal me this," Lauren threw off casually, "How come you're not under the thrall?"
"But I am," the brunette was the picture of sincerity, "I swear, Lauren, I am under your thrall."
"You defied my direct orders, showed unwarranted initiative," Lauren pursued her line of questioning, "At the very least, it must've weakened. Why?"
"Well, it has never been as strong as my love to you in the first place," Bo frowned in concentration, "It has never been able to make me do what I didn't want to do. Hence, whatever I did I did because I thought it was in your best interests."
"So, you always has been able to resist my orders but you never did before the big Kenzi escape," Lauren summed up, "And essentially, you could've walked away any time."
"The first and only time I endeavored the former was when I wanted to help your baby sister, who is a great kid, your only family and totally deserves to have some fun. As to the latter, never wanted, never tried, not sure the thrall would let me walk far, baby," the succubus sniffed thoughtfully, "My desires and your compulsion are one hell of a combo."
Lauren's brown eyes bored into Bo's innocent face with intensity and suspicion but the succubus held her own.
"You lied to me about the extent of the thrall and thus you skewed my results," the doctor spoke accusingly.
"I was afraid you wouldn't have me at your side if you knew," the other woman replied simply with unfeigned tenderness and searched Lauren's face for any signs of emotion but the shutters were firmly on.
"You know, Kenzi's got herself a new toy, in no small degree thanks to your aiding and abetting," the doctor shifted gears and Bo tensed, desperately guessing where the human was going with that.
"Which, come to think of it, is not such an unfortunate turn of events," Lauren continued meditatively, "Kenzi, for once, is grateful to the point of owing me a big favor and manageable. Which paves the way for me to get to the miraculous twig of Zamora. Also, an adversary of mine is out of commission. Not in the permanent way I planned for him but the wolf boy can be instrumental in keeping my sister in line."
Bo's fists, slightly numb from the tight rope, clenched behind her back as the succubus was working her way through the download of information and coming to depressing conclusion about the fate of the only wolf they both knew as well as about Lauren's fragile mental health.
"And poor Hale is finally expendable. Not that he has ever been much use – neither as a man, nor as a thrall nor, as I've recently come to realize, as leverage – she just doesn't care enough for him," the blonde recounted, "But I've come up with a mission for him, too. And Bo, darling, I do believe you but I still have to test you on this thrall thing."
"Run any tests you like," Bo nodded eagerly, pushing her growing apprehension aside.
"My la tests are complicated and inconclusive," the doctor sighed regretfully, "They didn't help me to understand you were not as enthralled as the others. I have a much better plan, testing you, teaching Kenzi a lesson and nipping your budding appliance in one fell swoop."
Her heels clicked on the wooden floor towards the desk where a long finger with a sensibly short nail pressed a button on a multi line phone.
"Bruce, get me Hale, now!" she commanded sharply.
###
As soon as they were alone in her room, the girl looked up into the wolf's serenely bland face with an irrational hope to see him wink at her conspiratorially but his blue eyes were serious, eagerly awaiting a command.
"I still can't believe it worked, The Ice Queen relented," Kenzi fell back on a taunt, "Glad I didn't have to shoot her, glad I didn't have to find out if I could shoot her."
The man frowned down at her in incomprehension, "The Ice Queen? Last I heard, she was breeding reindeer somewhere in the north of Finland and moaning about the global warming. And actually the title is self-conferred, there is only one Queen, doctor Lewis. And who did you want to shoot? Let me do it for you. The Queen said I should protect you."
"Seems like it was an anti-sense-of-humor injection," the girl murmured to herself ruefully and cranked up the volume of her voice, "Give me time, D-man, and I'll train you to smile again. No shooting necessary. Let me give you a tour of the premises instead. I mean that's just the sitting-room or whatever it's called, and there's my bedroom and the ensuite bathroom and it's actually pretty cool considering my previous abode was more of a crack-shack variety."
"My Queen ordered to follow you," he agreed looking down into her upturned face without a flicker of emotion.
"Then come, dummy," she tugged softly at the sleeve of his shirt, though her insides twisted into a painful knot as she saw Dyson take an obedient step forward, like a parade horse.
"Bathroom or bedroom?" he asked matter-of-factly putting a heavy hand on her shoulder, "Bathroom if I am starting to reek, bedroom if you are in the mood for some entertainment, my lady."
Kenzi, mildly flattered at the unusually unmocking use of the term of address, took a deep breath drawing the heady mixture of barely-there cologne and warm male odor with a dollop of sweat through her nose and knew that was a mistake. It went straight to her head, making her knees buckle and her thoughts flash-back to what they had been doing in the car before Dyson took off to investigate.
"You don't reek," she mumbled weakly and knew she was no longer keeping her feet on the ground, literally. Her tiny body was lifted off the floor and pressed against the hot broad chest while a confident hand tousled her hair angling her face for a kiss.